​White House exempts itself from FOIA requests

Notwithstanding claims of being the most transparent administration ever, the White House now says that an executive branch office is exempt from United States Freedom of Information Act requests effective immediately.

As of Tuesday, the
Office of Administration will no longer have to heed FOIA
requests — the likes of which had for decades helped explain the
inner workings of White House functions — according to a notice
published in the Federal Register this week.

Although the White House is largely exempt from having to answer
FOIA requests, the Office of Administration has until now been
among the few exceptions concerning the commander-in-chief. In
the final rule published on Tuesday morning, however, the deputy
assistant to President Barack Obama writes that the office’s
parent agency, the Executive Office of the President, “is
removing regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations related
to the status of records created and maintained by the Executive
Office.”

According to the White House’s reasoning, the sole function of
the Office of Administration is to advise and assist the
president and therefore it’s not covered under the Freedom of
Information Act or the Privacy Act of 1974.

Gregory Korte, a USA Today reporter who broke the story on Monday evening, wrote that
the Office of Administration had answered FOIA requests for 30
years.

“Until the Obama administration, watchdog groups on the left
and the right used records from the office to shed light on how
the White House works,” Korte wrote.

Under the last Bush administration, however, the watchdog group
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, CREW, filed
a suit with the agency which opened the door to a lengthy legal
battle.

An appeals court said six years ago that the Office of
Administration is not an “agency” as defined by FOIA
since it “performs only operational and administrative tasks
in support of the president and his staff,” and is therefore
exempt. However, the decision was not made official until entered
in the Federal Register this week with little notice.

“This action is being taken in order to align Office of
Administration policy with well-settled legal
interpretations,” Beth Jones, deputy assistant to the
president, explained in the Register.

But critics have been quick to call out the Obama administration
for the peculiar timing of the announcement. Not only does the
Register notice come six years after an appeals court settled the
FOIA issue, but also in the middle of “Sunshine Week,” in which
news groups are strongly advocating government transparency.

"The irony of this being Sunshine Week is not lost on
me," Anne Weismann of CREW told USA Today. "It is
completely out of step with the president's supposed commitment
to transparency.”

Speaking to The Hill, a White House official defended this week’s
announcement, saying, “This federal register notice does not
change any aspect of the administration’s FOIA policy. It simply
removes outdated regulations that no longer apply to the Office
of Administration and haven’t applied since the Bush
Administration."

“Generally speaking, the administration has gone to great
lengths to release more information on the front end so that
individuals do not have to file a FOIA to get access to
government data and other information,” the official added.

Even before news of the Federal Register notice caught wind this
week, reporters were calling that claim into question. In a
Washington Post article concerning the Obama administration’s
transparency record with regards to Sunshine Week published on
Monday, reporter Jason Ross Arnod wrote that President Obama’s
pledge to run the “most transparent” administration in US history
has fallen short, according to critics, evidenced through the use
of secret laws, evoking state secrets privilege and prosecuting
whistleblowers, among other tactics.

Spox says exempting White House from FOIA requests won't affect
"ensuring that the administration is the most transparent admin
in history."

During a Tuesday afternoon briefing, White House press secretary
Josh Earnest described the notice as “a matter of just
cleaning up the records that are on the books.”

“It has no impact at all on the policy that we have
maintained since the beginning to comply with the Freedom of
Information Act when it’s appropriate,” Earnest said.
“It also has no bearing on the Office of Administration and
the role that they do play in ensuring that the administration is
the most transparent administration in history.”

Meanwhile, White House correspondence can still be obtained by
the American public, but only through filing requests under the
Presidential Records Act — and not until five years after an
administration has run its course.